it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teals you can find everything on pinballprofile.com all your subscriptions past episodes and more we're also on facebook or on instagram and twitter at pinball profile and you can email us pinball profile at gmail.com it seems like there has been this huge void in pinball for almost a year hopefully with vaccines masks and other safety measures, we'll be able to get back to leagues and arcades and tournaments and more. But it was one year ago today, February 22nd, 2020. That might have been our last big pinball memory. For me, that day meant a bunch of different things. For the majority of the people listening to this podcast, pretty safe to guess that you participated in what Steven Bowden likes to refer to as round zero of pinberg. It was the day over 1,500 people tried to get their pinberg ticket as they went online. The F5 keys on computers were bashed almost as much as Stern's Star Wars action buttons, and people tried to secure their spot in the biggest tournament in the world. I got lucky this day, but not everyone did, and I didn't even the year before. In fact, if it wasn't for Mrs. Pinn grabbing me a ticket, I wouldn't have been able to play the year before. So we all felt that stress at one point or another. That's how the day began. The end of that day for me, as it turns out, was the last concert I have seen in over a year. I went and saw the Blues Brothers in concert. Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, filling in for his late brother John. This was at Caesars Windsor, right across from the river from Detroit. And because of the band's musical tastes and proximity to Detroit, they played a ton of tributes to the great Motown sound. I didn't think that would be the last concert I've seen in 12 months. I usually attend 10, 20 a year. A bit of a music fan. And another void I miss. But the other significant thing for me on February 22, 2020, it was the end of this crazy idea I had to do this Pinball Profile World Tour. One year ago, I wrapped up the 10th event at Beaks Bar and Grill in Monroe, Michigan. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because we haven't done much in a year. And I consider myself extremely fortunate in every aspect. And maybe because of that, it's why I miss an event like this so much. And over 400 people showed up to these Pinball Profile World Tour events. It was an idea I had in the summer of 2019. 2019, I was looking at my schedule for October and November. Wow, I'm going to five large pinball events. The European Pinball Championship in Denmark, Pinball Expo in Chicago, the 24-hour Battle of the Sanctum, Houston Arcade Expo, and Freeplay Florida. Now, when I go away for pinball, I like to cram as much as possible as I can. Then I can decompress when the trip is over. So with these five events, I started thinking, wouldn't it be great to have another pinball match while I'm there? I bet others would like this too. And it may even justify making the trip for some with so much pinball competition possibilities. I've run tournaments locally before. I helped manage two great leagues here in Ontario, the London Ontario Pinball League and the Tri-City Pinball League. I participate in several other ones. I've certainly been to my share of tournaments. I can run tournaments, but okay, wait a second. Let's think about it. Why would people want to come? Are Whoppers enough? For some, yes, but I wanted more. So I thought it would be great to have a bunch of sponsors for this event. And luckily through networking, I was able to contact seven of them, seven sponsors. And every one of them said yes, they'd like to help. And alphabetically, I want to thank them now. I've done it before, but even a year after the fact, it still means a lot to me. Comet Pinball Ryan Wanger in Colorado. I hope you're getting your lights from him. He gives back to the community in more ways than one. Tournaments, streamers. I'm probably missing many things. But more recently, another victim to COVID-19 in this pandemic. It looked like Lion's Classic Pinball was going to be gone. Again, Ryan Wanger stepped in and saved that, and I hope to get there someday in Colorado. So thank you to Comet Pinball for being a big sponsor of the Pinball Profile World Tour. Next was Deep Root Pinball. Now, how does Deep Root help? They hadn't had any games out at this point, but I contacted Robert, and he was willing to help with a big financial donation to make it more affordable for everyone else, to have some cash prizes in which we, in fact, turned over to Project Pinball and gave back thousands of dollars to that fine charity. So I'll never forget that, Robert. Thank you very much. Another quick contact to Jersey Jack himself. Hey, can you help out? Didn't blink an eye. We had some great swag to give away at each event. And the reason these sponsors were big for me for the Pinball Profile World Tour is because I wanted to keep costs down for the players. I wanted them to each receive something in the form of a shirt, a mug, some sort of keepsake. And all the prizes that I gathered were given back to the players of the pinball tournaments at random. Didn't matter if you were first. It didn't matter if you were last. You had just as much chance of winning prizes. And I think that was one of the attractions to the Pinball Profile World Tour. So thanks to Jersey Jack for coming on board. To Measel Mods in New Mexico. I've never been there. I really want to go. I've seen Kristen and Tim at shows. They've always been a great supporter of the pinball community. I think their work is fantastic. So Kristen came on board and gave away some incredible prizes to some of our participants. So thank you very much for them. Scott at Pin Stadium Lights. My goodness. It was one of the big prizes of the night because, again, all these prizes were given away at random. We just drew names at the end of these Pinball Profile World Tour events, and people won prizes. And boy, did Scott make a lot of people happy when they found out that they were the winners of their own set of pin stadium lights. These are big prizes. Zach Sharp and the staff of Stern Pinball, they came on board as well. They have always been wonderful to me. And quite frankly, so have all the other people I've mentioned. Again, part of being fortunate, I guess. But Zach, again, not blinking an eye, what do you need? Sent me all kinds of great prizes, autographed translates. These things made the Pinball Profile Tour so much better. So thank you to Zach and Stern Pinball. And finally, Ulex Store. I had met David and his wife Leanne a few times. In fact, the first time was at the Pinball the Zoo event in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I walked by his table and saw these incredible flipper bats and trophies, and I thought, these are unique. I'm going to use these for our leagues. I know how excited the people are when they receive these events, and he told me the other things he was doing. So David and Leanne came on board, made incredible T-shirts and mugs, again, for all participants of the Pinball Profile World Tour, plus a great keepsake trophy for each of the 10 winners. Thank you so much. And David, by the way, enjoy your retirement. Well-deserved, although I imagine you're going to be a little more busy with ULIC. But at least you can call your own shots. Congratulations. So I told you I had five large pinball events. Five is not really a tour, is it? You need 10. 10 is kind of the magic number. And I looked and I was like, okay, there's three I can create that I can drive to. I can drive to East Rochester, New York. I can certainly drive to Mississauga and to Michigan as well. Okay, that's eight. Well, the other two I kind of crammed in when I was on vacation. My wife and I both turned 50. So she had this California-Hawaii trip for September, and I had my Australia trip in January. She'll kill me for saying this, but if you think about the math, my wife was born in September of 1969. I was January 1970. By my math, some people would say that's four months. I look at it as, hmm, she was born in the 60s. I was born in the 70s. She's a decade older than me, so that's what I'm going with. Luckily, my math didn't really have to come into play for organizing the Pinball Profile World Tour, but I was able to count to ten. Okay, five events I'm going to, three I can drive to, and two while I'm on vacation. There's ten. Oh, boy, look at this. 10 different events in four different countries over the course of five months. All right, let's get these registered in the IFPA. But what are we going to do? What kind of tournaments are we going to do? Strikes? Match play? I really fell in love with the Flip Frenzy format because you could get a lot of games in. You were always go, go, go. You could do it in a short amount of time. And for those that cared, maximize your TGP and get the most possible whoppers you could, which is attractive to a lot of people. So the first was, again, on my wife's 50th birthday vacation that we went on. It was in San Francisco. I had to go to Free Gold Watch. I was talking to Gene X. Wong. He said, yeah, that'd be great. He helped me arrange it. And then the poor guy had to go work in Vegas, if I recall. He wasn't even able to attend. So Derek Lipkin was kind enough to give me a hand that night. And it was great to see these people on a Monday night show up. Again, this is San Francisco. And I think about five days earlier, I was in Los Angeles. and I happened to run into Emoto Harney. She drove up to San Francisco with Daniel Spohler to come to this event. And she did some great filming too, so I really appreciate that. Andre Masikoff was the first ever winner, beating Andreas Peterson, so he took home the trophy. But it was really nice to meet a lot of new people in San Francisco at such a wonderful location. Then once I got back from this California-Hawaii trip, I was asked by, I think, Levy and Greg Pavarelli to play on Team America. I'm pretty sure I have a thick Canadian accent. But nevertheless, play on Team America at the European Pinball Championships for kind of their little country match. Well, of course, I'm in. Karen Kaiser and Sebastian Bobbio rounded out our little fivesome. A lot of fun there, but again, needed another event. So Peter Anderson, one of the world's greatest players, gave me access to his facility, the Flipper K. Lardin, which sadly now no longer exists, and we packed 47 people there before the EPC even started. Do you know how cool this was? we had people from Argentina, Spain, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, the UK, USA, of course Denmark, Germany, Norway, and Italy all playing in this World Tour event. This was just our second event. Cesar Martinez from Spain was the big winner. Sebastian Bobbio coming in second place in Denmark. If you want to hear more highlights of these incredible events, I welcome you to listen to episode 223 of Pinball Profile on our website. So I come home from Denmark, stay home for a few days, get a little stir crazy and then go, all right, time to leave again. Another pinball event, this time in Chicago, Pinball Expo. But of course we need a pinball profile world tour. Didn't really have a venue. Logan Arcade was busy at the time with League Night. So I contacted Jack Danger. And keep in mind, his place isn't an arcade. It's his studio. It is his livelihood. And I said, is it okay to maybe have a few people come over? We certainly will be careful. And Jack was kind enough to do that and stream it on dead flip which was very nice 31 people andy bagwell was the winner he does very well in illinois and i can't make this up Josh Sharpe came in second do you know how great that was that he came in second at one of my tournaments love it go listen to episode 225 if you want to hear more about the great chicago experience so three events done pretty quickly the flip frenzy format was working the next event was at the sanctum now this is the nuts part we're We're about to play a 24 hour tournament, and yet okay here this pre the night before 75 people showed up for this There no way we could do a flip frenzy and we really wanted to make sure the timing of it was okay let get in let get out so we can get some rest for the battle that is going to take place tomorrow morning We did a three-strikes tournament, but with 75 people, as we got near the end, we had to make it a one-ball game just to get it through. I think the final game, if I recall, was Old Chicago, if you can imagine that, and it was Phil Birnbaum edging out Steven Bowden. Okay, I got to rest for a couple of weeks, but it was off to Houston. My first time ever there. Love Texas. Certainly thinking about our friends in Texas right now as they deal with the horrible power situation, the cold Carl Weathers. Hope everyone's doing well. But going to Houston in November was going to be fun. I had heard about the Houston Arcade Expo. Phil Grimaldi had talked a lot about it, and I certainly like everything he does. And it was a good chance to see a lot of my friends. And some new ones. But again, where are we going to do this? We couldn't do this actually at the Expo. Let me just say it was a fantastic event in Katy, Texas, just outside of Houston. Well, I don't need to say it. Let's let them say it. These are recordings that have never been released before. I guess I was a little busy with this tour to actually release these. I'm looking and I'm like, oh, let's hear from these people. I've got a bunch of these clips. Here's what happened in Texas. It's loud. It's rocking. It's Einstein's Pub. It's the Pinball Profile World Tour. Leslie Spates is here right now. You come here quite a bit, don't you? Yes, definitely. We have a monthly tournament here, second Sunday, I think. So we're here every month. I make the trophies. We have a great time. Greg, our operator here at Einstein's, is always so generous. We love his machines. He takes great care of everything. It's the best here in town. Greg, the operator, does a great job. You just said that very nonchalantly. Like, here, could you pass the salt about those trophies? Those trophies are amazing. Oh, thank you. I got a cricket earlier this year, and I took inspiration from our fabulous Liz and Raleigh, who run the Houston Bells and Chimes. They make all of our monthly ladies' tournaments. And if you've met Matt, you'll know that he's not making trophies. So here I'm making them. Thank you very much. Enjoy. Thank you. I'm with Dawn and Aaron Friedkin. They play here at Einstein Pub. Are you having fun at the Flip Frenzy? Oh, absolutely. Having a blast. I like that you're wearing the shirt, too. Thank you very much. You're quite welcome. Most handsome guy here. Thank you. You agree, don't you, Dawn? I do. I do. So you play in Bells and Chimes. Tell us about that. It's amazing. I play with a great group of women. We collaborate and learn from one another and also are competitive and have a great time. That's the perfect model for any league. Bells and Chimes seem to have it just right. Thank you. We think so. And what about Space City Open? I mean, this is going to be a lot of fun this weekend. It's my very first time coming. Oh, really? Yeah. So I'm very excited. How long have you been in pinball? Since I was three. Okay. So 41 years. I used to play with my mom. We had a machine at my house. What machine do you remember? A circus. A valley circus. Yeah, okay. And what about you? How long have you been in pinball, Aaron? Since junior high school. So since probably 1984, 1983. It's great now, all these new games. Oh, it is great. It's great yet hard, isn't it? It is. It is. We have a few games at home. Don's the queen of pinball at the house. What do you have? We have eight ball deluxe. We have a Bally's Game Show, a Pin Bot, and a Johnny Mnemonic. That's a good mix. A little bit of everything. And it's probably going to grow. When you have one, you don't just keep one. It grows and grows, doesn't it, Dawn? It does. It does. What's next? Adam's Family, I think. Oh, that's a classic. Go get it. All right, good luck, Erin. Good luck, Dawn. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Elizabeth, thank you for helping me run this tournament here at Einstein. You're doing a great job. Thank you. You run a lot here, don't you? We do. We're so thankful for Greg and all the great support he gives our league. And your whole family's involved, too. I heard your kids on Backbox. Yes, my kids love pinball. At least they say they do. Well, they must get it from you and your husband. Good luck. Thank you very much for helping us. Thanks. I'm so glad you're here. If you ever play Beatles, don't ever play against Elizabeth Nebaker. Final game here at the Pinball Profile World Tour at Einstein's Club. Kicked my butt. Well done. Woo! Thank you! You know you're in trouble when, as soon as you're done, you say, I'm going to enter that into Pindigo. Thanks. What was your strategy? This is what I love. Hitting the ball. Hitting the ball. It's so simple. Keep the ball alive. Why do people try to do anything else? I don't know. I don't know. It works for me. You know what? Win or lose, I've been watching. You've been smiling the whole time. I'm glad you're having fun. Of course. It's all about the fun. Good for you. Thanks for coming out. Thank you. This was awesome. Oklahoma in the house. Travis Murray is here. How are you doing, Travis? I'm doing fine. How are you doing today? Feeling a little better. I know you were under the Carl Weathers and had to miss the unfortunate Pinball Profile World Tour event on Thursday. Yeah, I was a little upset about that. I didn't come down here for the expo. I came down for that. Exactly. I came down for that. Who's kidding who? No, but you got your shirt anyway, so that's going to be nice. And Free Play Florida next weekend. Yes, yes. I'm excited about that. Back to back. Yeah, not only that. I'm taking the whole family to Legoland and Disney World. Oh, you'll have fun? Driving across the country with four kids, my wife and my mom. So fun, I hope. Insanity, probably. Have you seen the movie National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase? I have, and I don't think I've learned anything. Just don't go to Wally World, all right? Stick with Disney World, stick with Legoland. Exactly. Good luck here, and good luck next weekend. Oh, I appreciate it, Jeff. Thank you, man. He is currently number 15 in the world in the IFPA, but only the second best Colin. That's pretty disappointing. Colin MacAlpine joins us right now. You've been bumped by that kid. I know. I'm the OG Colin. And the young Colin is now risen above. You need to make a trip to Australia, I think. Maybe that would help. I think so. I hear it's just like the whoppers are farmed out there and sharecroppers. He's the prime minister. Anyway, you've done well so far here. It is Friday night. You've already won perhaps the biggest tournament in your career in the Pinball Profile World Tour event in Katy, Texas at Einstein's Pub. That's got to be the biggest victory ever. I don't even know how you can, the pressure of winning that. It was monumental. I mean, it's just the amount of pressure, the prestige that comes with it. What are you going to do with that lovely trophy? I think that needs to go in the center of everything. You know, maybe the Pinberg Cup needs to be put to the side. Actually, you could probably put that trophy inside of it. The Pinball Profile trophy lights up. Okay, Pinberg's got nothing on that. I don't have another trophy that lights up. Exactly. And speaking of lighting up, it's about midnight right now, and the party's going to 2. Well, yeah, the Houston Expo is definitely the party show. Is it? Yeah. But I'll tell you what, you know, partying, we can party a little longer because what did we get today, Jeff? Well, that's a kiss of death putting it on here, but I can say it for you. You've got to buy into the playoffs, so you'll be in the top 16. I got lucky and did it too. It came down the last game, so we're walking in right now, and we're going to watch Scott Denisey spin the wheels of steel. There's a moto over there with Marco. Lots of good games. It's going to be fun. It's going to be awesome. Okay, fireball. We've got to go. Woo! The following week, it was back to the south, this time Freeplay Florida in Orlando. I'm trying to think if I've been three or four times. It is certainly circled on the calendar every November because of the great job that Daniel Spoler does. But I'm going to be there. Might as well have the Pinball Profile World Tour event. And that's where Bill Kurtz came in to lend a hand. If you're in Orlando, check out Oviedo Mall and check out the district Eat and Play because of this man right here, Bill Kurtz. Thank you very much for hosting the Pinball Profile World Tour. Oh, we love you having here. Thank you very much. What a collection, too. I'm talking some of the greatest games and all. I mean, whatever's new, it's here. I see Jurassic Park. I see Black Knight. I see Monster Bash. I see Munsters. Everything. Yes. You really pride yourself on a great collection. I love pinball. And you're doing a great thing, too, because, you know, it's a card system. You've got a bunch of redemption stuff. I mean, this is just more than pinball here. It's what Dave and Buster's should be. I said it. You're smiling. They should be. You've got a bowling alley, for crying out loud. Yes. Great food and everything. Again, the District Eat and Play. Check it out, Bill Kurtz. And thank you very much for putting the games tonight on FreePlay. Very nice. That, again, helps us give more money to Project Pinball. Yes, we love Project Pinball. Yeah, you do a lot. We do a lot for them. A lot of good players in this area. Oh, yes, tons. We love it. This weekend is a big tournament, FreePlay Florida. And I got to meet your great tech, Kelly Griffin. Yes. He does a good job. Yes, great. Kelly's great. We love Kelly. Bill, I can't thank you enough. Thanks. Thanks, Jeff. Derek Price, the big winner of that event, beating Eric Stone. Not easy for anyone to do, certainly in Florida. In fact, Eric went on and won pretty much everything at Freeplay Florida. Then it was December, and luckily the Carl Weathers was kind, and I'm so glad I got to go back to this place. It wound up being the last time ever, unfortunately for me, with seeing Bruce and Kat Nightingale at their incredible Silver Ball Saloon in East Rochester, New York. I highly recommend you listen to episode 274 to hear many of the participants of that event and what Silver Ball Saloon meant to them. We could have just played pinball and it would have been fantastic, but Knox Amusement stepped it up. Thank you so much for Todd for providing incredible prizing. And of course, Bruce and Kat were giving out free food and drink to every participant too, so that was a nice little added touch. A big reason that tournament was successful. 44 people showed up. A lot of Canadians crossed the border. a lot from Ottawa, the Castlemans. There were even two Canadians in the final four. But no, yours truly came in third. Phil Birnbaum, who won and tried to become a two-time winner, when he won at the Sanctum, he came in second. Andy Cushman was the big winner. The following week, it was country number three. First we did the States, then Denmark. Had to do one in Canada. Or did I have to do two? Here's a couple of recordings from that day, from both the main event and the women's event. I see this guy all over the GTA. He's one of the nicest guys in pinball. You see him at bluffs a lot. Here at the Pinball Profile World Tour event at Player One, Kevin Chow. Hey, Kevin, how are you? Good, Jeff. How are you? You are everywhere. You really like pinball, don't you? Oh, I love pinball. It's the greatest thing ever. I've seen you help out with Mike Primo, a lot of bluffs, and a lot of photos, too. What's your favorite thing about competitions? Really, it's just getting to play with the other people that you don't normally play with within your league. So it really brings in other people, and you get to meet other people, and you get to play people you don't normally get to play against. and you're pretty good too. I've seen you beat some of those people that come in from other leagues too. I get really lucky. You know, it's all luck. I'd rather be lucky than good, but you both actually Kevin congrats buddy Talk to you soon Thank you The first ever Pinball Profile World Tour women Event Very happy to be doing it here at Player One Julie Dorsers our co Julie having fun I'm having fun, except I hate Star Wars. We're playing Star Wars right now, and you seem to be doing okay. You enjoying it? I have one strike, so I'm quite happy. Way to brag. Well... I'm just kidding. Now, a new player I've never seen before. Jenny. Jenny! Jenny from the block. Julie says from the block, but you don't have to say that. You enjoying this? I love it. New into pinball, aren't you? Yep, maybe about six, seven weeks. Oh, I thought it was this year. I didn't realize it was really like six, seven weeks. And you're gung-ho. You're playing in the Toronto Pinball League. You're here at this event. What do you like? I'm having the time of my life. Awesome. You've learned, I've noticed, that some games don't have ball saving. You're like, what the? Yeah, my flipper doesn't even touch the ball. So it's a little unfair, I think, but that's pinball. That's Star Wars. So you know what stinks about that is just the way it flips, it auto-flips. You almost kind of have to pull the plunger and maybe soft-lunge it. It'll still kill you in Star Wars. Yeah, for sure. You know what? I need to learn the tricks of the trade, I guess. So what game or what got you into pinball? This is so new. I played growing up as a teenager, and I actually thought that pinball was dead. But it's not. It's alive and thriving, and I'm so happy that I, you know, it fell on my lap. and I plan to keep playing as long as I can. Well, I'm glad you've joined leagues. I'm glad you're playing here at Place Lake Player One with the beautiful showroom and 22 different games. Thanks very much. Good luck, Jenny. Thank you very much. Donna, I see you. You're trying to hide, aren't you? Donna, you know from Blufferellas. Donna, how are you doing? I'm sucking, big time. Are you having fun? That's what it's all about, right? Yes, absolutely. That's the only reason why I'm here. I always have fun. Always have fun. Love the people. It's great seeing people that you don't get to see on a regular basis. That's the fun part. I like seeing more and more women, and you're doing a great job, too, with Bluffarellas, and a lot of women are coming out playing pinball, and people I've never seen before. I've never seen Laura before. I've never seen Jenny before, so it's good. You really enjoy it. Yeah, no, I've been playing at the Bluffs for about a year or so now, and Laura Edward really pushed me, so here I am. And I'm having a good time. I haven't played this many new machines, I think, ever. Laura Edward, a great person, too. I mean, you just want to hang out with Laura because she's a cool person and fun, and pinball's just the bonus. And Donna's pretty cool, too. Pretty good. I know Donna was encouraging me as well, via Laura, via text, so it was fun. It was pretty funny. Peer pressure in a good way. It was threatening. You better show up. No, it was good. It was good. Good luck. Yeah, thank you. Julie, in fact, won the women's event, and in the main event, it was kind of a Bluffs pinball Final Four. Bluffs is a famous place in Scarborough, Ontario, just east of Toronto. They were home to a pre-IFPA 15 World Championship event, and it was Zeus beating Les, Dino, and Walt in the Final Four. That was it for 2019, but still two events, and there was a little bit of a break before we headed off to our fourth country in Australia. Now, this was for my 50th birthday, so it started off in Indonesia for a few days, then Perth, Australia, then it was off to Melbourne. Can't say Melbourne. It's Melbourne. at Ryan C's Dirty Dungeon. 47 people there. And again, this was kind of right after my 50th birthday. John Cosson had met me at the airport. That was a nice surprise to see him greet Ann and I. And we spent some good time there. Then it was the big tournament. Again, 47 players. And of course, it's at Ryan's house. So he made up some rules that if you beat Jeff in a Flip Frenzy match, he had to take a sip from a special cup full of Fireball whiskey. So I couldn't lose. I win either way. I either win the game or I get a shot of fireball. Well, it was a good time had by many, and here are some of those people now for the first time ever on Pinball Profile. Brian Sleeves, how are you playing, buddy? A few wins, a few losses. More on one side than the other? Just on the win side, I think. Bragger. No, only just, only just. Thank you very much for coming out to the Pinball Profile World Tour here in Melbourne. It's so much fun to do these flip frenzies. Yeah, it's great to be here. It's a good chance to meet new people, and it's just fun, always, always fun. And how long have you been playing? Oh, since I was eight or nine. So just a few years? Yeah, just a few years. Hold on, I've got to take off a shoe or count that eye. Hold on. Competitively for six years now. Yeah, we're about the same. It's so much fun, isn't it? It is, yeah, it is. It's quite a challenge, so yeah, it's good. And you know what? You don't take it too serious. It's a little bit of fun, a little bit of bragging rights. Good bunch of people. Absolutely. Yeah, and that's the main thing. You've got to keep the fun in it. Otherwise, it just doesn't become a thing anymore. Words of wisdom from Brian Schliebs. Thanks very much, buddy. Awesome. Thanks, mate. Current Victorian state champion. What? You need to add that. Hold on a second. Hold on a second here. I'm just about to wrap up, and you're the Victoria state champion? Yeah, I got lucky a couple of weeks ago. Oh, what is this all about? More good fun. More good fun. Yeah. It was grueling. Try losing and see how much fun it is. Yeah, yeah. I did a bit of that. Oh, yeah, you've got the belt. We'll get a picture and put that on. Yeah, yeah. All right, thanks, Brian. No worries. That guy's good. Stuart Thornton is here. You know him from Australia. My God. Are you the tallest person here? I probably am. Yeah. Is Luke Longley from Australia? Yes. Basketball player. That's right. Yeah. Are you related to him at all? No. No. But I did play basketball for 30 years. For 30 years? Yeah. I didn't even think you were... How old are you? How old do you think I am? Well, I didn't think you were like over 40. 46. You look good. I know. You're only a few years away from 50. It's the haircut, man. Think what's happened... Think what's going to happen when you turn 50. That's only four more years. You're going to look like this gargoyle. I'm going to have to have a big party. Maybe fall over a chair or what sort of stuff. I know. I have no idea what you're talking about. Sorry. Thanks very much. You made the final four of the pinball profile. Yeah, I did it the hard way. Why? I don't know. Well, tiebreaker. That's right. I did two tiebreakers. No kidding? Yeah. You had to beat the top seed to get there. Was it Cheetah? I did, yeah. And then Cheetah was in the finals. It was, and didn't do me any favours. I think it was after Ryan moved it, you know. Oh, changed everything. All of the geometry was off. So you've got a big tournament coming up, don't you? So, yeah, we're going to the Australian Championship Series in Koolangatta. Dr. John's little tourney. Yes, that's the one. I'm looking forward to it. I appreciate the nice gift you gave me. I got a nice little jar of honey. So do you have the bee stings to prove it? Oh, I've had plenty of bee stings. That was one of the running jokes Martin's had. Called me Bee Sting Stu. I showed up to a... I've heard him on the stream, but I didn't know why. Now I know. So I showed up to a tournament a couple of years ago, and I've been stung on both hands. And it was like I was wearing boxing gloves, and I couldn't really flip. It was hilarious. I thank you very much for coming. It was a pleasure to meet you. Oh, likewise. Thank you very much. Thanks, Stuart. Cheers. Here he is right now, Richard Rhodes, the King of Australia, the Prime Minister, whatever you want to call him. Great to see you, buddy. Thank you, thank you. Good to be here. You couldn't make the Pinball Profile World Tour. You had to work till 8. I had to work. I'm sorry. Somebody in Australia's got to work. Yeah, and it's not Ryan. I don't know what he does for a living. Do you know what he does for a living? No idea. Yeah, find out for me. A little crooked, I'm sure, but anyway. How have you been playing? I mean, you're one of the best I've ever seen. I watch you on streams. Your light's out. I haven't been playing. It's crazy. I don't know. Yeah, I've just been having a break. Richard, pleasure to see you. We're going to play later, right? Oh, we will. Okay, buddy. Thanks, bud. Oh, look who's here in Australia. It's Stacey Bog. Hey, Stacey, how are you? Hi, Jeff, how are you? I might have picked on you once or twice, and we've never met. Were you just waiting for me to get off the plane to beat the living hell out of me? No, no, I'm a man of peace, Jeff. I'll give you my own in words, not with fists. By the way, how come out of all this time of you and I chatting, whether it's online or on streams. How come I didn't know about your success on the television show The Chase? Nobody ever asked. Well, you kicked butt on there. You had a terrible team, but you were on fire. I started off well and I ended poorly, but I gave it my best shot. That's a pretty impressive, that's a tough show to do. That's like the Jeopardy of the UK and Australian world. I would love to do Jeopardy. We used to have a show called Sailor's Century, which was much closer to that. I would have kicked ass on that, but I was only a kid when that was out. I mean, when you look at somebody like Dr. John doing hard quiz, do you just laugh and go, oh, really? Really? It's barely a real quiz. You're playing for a cup. You're playing for a piece of bronze. I mean, it's not the same as $8,500. The big prize you won, right? Yeah, that's right. The drink bottle that I got. Hey, Stacey, it's good to see you. I know you've been playing a lot of pinball. How's your game been lately? Yeah, pretty good apart from today. Today I was a bit slack, but I came second in the Vic Championship, so I put my stamp on the Josh Sharpe of Australia trophy there. So how long have you been playing? I've been playing for four or five years, I think. So in the four or five years that you've been playing, the growth, is it just ridiculous? It seems like it to me. Yeah, for sure. We started off with two or three tournaments here that we could play, and they were pretty small tournaments, two or three machines, and we've sort of expanded out, especially with the help of Ryan C, to get a whole bunch of multi-game tournaments like we had today in the 20 machines. And that really helps to play tournaments that are high TGP, high points, which is what we need now. So, yeah, it's really great. Brisbane's had a massive explosion over the last few years and Melbourne is probably second best at the moment. But, you know, trying our best to catch up. Now, I made the trek. What about you? Are you going to make the trek over to North America? One day. One day I definitely hope to do so. I mean, you know, I've got a relatively young family, so it's a bit tricky to do that. But, yeah, I would love to come to Indies. Just say you don't want to get milk. Just don't tell them where. That's right. It's not a lie if I get a bottle of milk in Indianapolis, is it? Exactly. Milwaukee. Milwaukee. Beautiful, beautiful. Stacey, thanks very much for coming out. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you for coming to Australia and bringing your game. Stacey Papaduke, everyone. we'll call him the unofficial winner of the pinball profile world tour he's got a lovely trophy to prove it simon rake allen hey simon how are you i'm very well thanks jeff how are you did you have fun yeah it's lovely always coming to ryan's house what a great collection of machines to play here yeah he's a great player too and uh i gotta tell you i was in his group in the semifinals. He, if you can imagine, attacked from Mars. He had 770,000. He needed 820 to advance. Ball one What would you do You want to get the skill shot maybe super skill something Yeah you just get a skill and you won Yeah well he did none of that That why you were the unofficial winner I think it a bit more than that actually I think I played pretty well in the other rounds And so you actually, Jeff, needed to beat me on the final ball. Did I? If you hadn't beaten me, I would have won. Seriously? Yeah. I don't even know what the score was. It was down to the very last ball. You were playing a couple hundred K to get me on this. On Quicksilver. On Quicksilver. And you pulled it off. And everyone's going like, you know, Luke, unofficial TD. He's like, Simon, Simon, he's got a drain down. You've won this. You've won this. And then you blew past it. So it was pretty exciting. You didn't even know how exciting the finish was. You think it came down to Ryan's ball. This was the ninth Pinball Profile World Tour, and I have been terrible in all of them. In fact, as far as making the playoffs, I think I got lucky once at Bruce's at the Silver Ball Saloon. Other ones, terrible. Some of them, like, near dead last. Yeah, but just like with Colin Urban and Escher. They're American. I'm Canadian. Yeah, but still North Americans. But I'm saying, you guys come down here. You actually left. You don't know this. You've left with 27 of Australian Whoppers. So congrats. That's a great trophy to go home with. That's pretty good. That's my trophy. My trophy for everyone else was having a great time. And we had 47 players here. And they all got the lovely Pinball Profile World Tour shirt, great sponsor prizes and everything else. It was really nice. So at a normal tournament here, we get about 30 players, 32, 35. That's a good showing to get 47. On a Tuesday night. Well, midweek, we're forced to play midweek here a lot of the tournaments. And so 47 players is a great turnout. Well, it's again Ryan's collection and players like yourself, Simon. Great playing. You did really well. Thank you. I'm actually most proud of my whitewater. I got the triple jackpot on the... 120? Yeah, I got the... You know, the first one was in 5X. Oh, my God. Yeah, so I ended up with the GC on the machine. Yeah. I didn't even know. I saw the third one come, but my other ball was down below. So I started playing below thinking, it's somewhere up there. Whack with the right flipper. Boom. Apparently I got it. So it put me in multiple hundreds of millions. I was very happy. I've been calling you Simon. You're now Willie. You are Whitewater Willie. I could be Whitewater Willie. Yeah, Simon Willie Raquel, and they call me. Congratulations. Thanks very much, buddy. Thanks, Jeff. That was a lot of fun. And I do want to point out my partner in crime at final round, Martin Robbins, chose not to play, probably would have won it all, because he streamed and lugged all his gear for Melbourne Silver Bowl. So thank you very much for doing that, Marty. So then it was a few weeks off, and we were still able to travel. Coronavirus, thankfully at that point, hadn't hit the masses in North America. We certainly were aware of it. In fact, flying back from Australia, my wife Anne and I went to several pharmacies to try to find masks for our flight home. We were lucky enough to get some in Sydney. But here we are gathering at Beaks Bar and Grill in Monroe, Michigan, one year ago today, February 22nd, 2020. No masks, no fear, no pandemic on the front page, certainly in North America. That would all change in a couple of weeks. But have a listen for the first time many of those participants right now on Pinball Profile, just to give you a good memory of what it's like to play in arcades and at leagues and pinball tournaments. Laurie Hohner's here at Beaks Bar and Grill, and you had a lot of fun playing this foot frenzy. Is this the first time you've done this? Yes, it was so much fun. I would recommend it to anyone. I think your daughter had a good time too McKenna she kicked my butt on monster bat she does really well she's 11 and I tell you she can beat me most of the time too the youth but you know what you and I were talking earlier that we played when we were younger and we both get our kids into pinball it's very important isn't it it is it is very important and they have so much fun and it's good fun for them they practice a little bit of skills to hand-eye coordination absolutely I didn't say I had it but I'm just saying the kids are pretty good at it. She is. She's very good at it. Much better than me. Lori, thanks very much for coming out. Thank you. It was a great time. I don't know if he's the best pinball player here. He definitely has the best shirt here. The Houston Asterix. Oh, you're going to make friends in Texas. Banging on the trash bin. You know, it's like Brian Morris code. Are you having fun here at the Pinball Profile World Tour? Oh, I'm having a blast. There's so many great people. The machines are playing really good. It's a great way to spend a Saturday. What's pinball like in Ann Arbor where you're from? It's growing every day I run the Sunday tournaments and that's a weekly event We've got maybe 15 or 20 people that show up on a pretty regular basis and it seems to be only growing It's great That's the key, making it grow and you're doing a great job, Justin Absolutely Good seeing you, bud Yeah, good seeing you too, thanks The brains behind Ulic Store Everyone talks about David It's all bull crap It's Leanne DeSlover here Hi, Leanne, how are you? I'm good, and you? I want to thank you very much because I've been fortunate enough to go to 10 different cities in four countries for this Pinball Profile World Tour ending today at Beaks Bar and Grill here in Monroe, Michigan. Everyone is loving the shirts and the trophies done by You Look Store, so thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Did you have fun playing today? Yes, I'm having an awesome time. Are you glad that you don't have to be making all these Pinball Profile shirts anymore? I actually enjoy it. 400-something. That's a lot. Yes. But thank you very much because it's sponsors like You Look Store that made it possible. So I appreciate it. I see you're up on attack tomorrow, so I just wanted to say thank you. All right. Thank you. Another happy customer at the Pinball Profile World Tour, Rhonda Austin. You had fun, didn't you? Oh, awesome. Yes. It was super cool. Split frenzy. You go, go, go. You get a lot of pinballing. Yeah. And what's really nice about it is you just play your best and it's not about winning. I mean, it is about winning. But if you're just in it for the fun of it, you know. And I know that all the prizes were random thanks to the great sponsors, like Comet, like Deep Root, like Stern, like Measel Mods, ULOOK Store, Pin Stadium Lights, and Jersey Jack Pinball. And I think you did okay. I really did. I got two T-shirts and a signed poster. Very nice. Well, thanks very much for coming out. So where do you play pinball? At Beaks and Pinball Pete's. and we do a couple of other tournaments around. We played in Toledo in a tournament, too, so that was fun. Well, Michigan, Ohio, great places for pinball. You proved it. Thanks very much, Rhonda. Yep, thank you for coming out. The mad professor, if you will, of Michigan pinball. You can see him with the lab coat. What's it say on the back? Dr. Till. EJ Osas. Hey, EJ, how are you doing? Doing good. It's nice to see you because I know you get around Michigan. You're in Detroit. You've got a few places there. You're fixing games. You were the chaperone, if you will, for Jared August at the Open when he finished third. Yeah, he did a great job there. It was awesome to watch him just kick everyone down. So come in there and just roll over. I played with you at Embrew in Ferndale. I'm playing with you here at Beaks. And you're a great player. Here you are in the Final Four. Appreciate it. I think my secret this week is sleep deprivation. So it's been working good. Okay. As long as you don't have to drive, because that's never good. Anyway, what do you think of some of the newer games? We've got them all here at Beaks. So, Stern's doing a great job with them. They're a lot of fun. So, you're the go-to guy. People want to contact you to get games fixed in Michigan. Where do they go? You know, that's a good question. I've got a Facebook page. You can message me on there. My phone is pretty much off, so you have to get me on Facebook. Go through Facebook. Facebook, there's a Dr. Chilt page. You can find me there and send me a message, and I'll get a hold back to you. All right, Dr. Chilt on Facebook. I wouldn't give out your phone number either, although I did see it on the bathroom. For a good time. Got to have a good time somehow. All right, E.J., thanks, buddy. All right, have a good one. A lot of people know him as Tyrus' dad, but he's his own man. Chris Eagle is here. How are you doing, Chris? I'm doing great. Thanks, Jeff. I know you're an Ann Arbor guy. Go blue. It's a fun time. I'm an old guy, and I love to go to the college bars during the games. And, you know, it's like they chop 20 years off your life. I would say almost close to 30 years ago, I saw Van Halen in concert at the Old Palace. and it was a rescheduled concert. Sammy couldn't sing, so they rescheduled it. And they rescheduled it in March, but it sucked because Michigan was playing. So what Van Halen did was they brought the big screen down and watched the game before the concert started. Michigan won, lights go out, Panama and all this great stuff. One of my favorite Michigan memories, thanks to Van Halen. Nice. Now, do they have that kind of stuff in Canada? Do you have big sports where Van Halen would bring down his screen and show you Canadian football or curling or whatever you have. Rest in peace, Neil Peart. Rush would always please us to that kind of effect. No, but that was something special, too. So you've been playing pinball a long time? Well, so I used to play about, oh, geez, 30 years ago, back when Rick Stetta was playing. Oh, wow. And Bowen was brand new. He was just coming up. And Lyman could still play because he wasn't working for any companies yet. He can still play. And the only big tournaments were in Chicago, so that was it. and then I didn't play for a long time when everything went to hack late, and my son Tyrus started playing about a year ago. Oh, get out of here. He's in the finals right now in the tournament. He just started a year ago? He's got some talent. He's looking over my shoulder right now. You've got to come back and play. Give me the eagle eye. Yeah, so he says, Dad, you've got to come back and play. So I've been playing competitively now for about six months. It's a lot of fun. The Eagles have landed here in Michigan. Congratulations. Thanks for coming out. It's a pleasure to meet you. You too, Jeff. Thanks. Tyrus Eagle, the big winner, beating Bill Lembises. E.J. Osis coming in third. I said it before, I'll say it again. I can't believe how lucky I was to be able to put that together. I had thought about doing something again in 2020. Obviously, that was put on the back burner. Will it be 2021? No, it won't. 2022? Fingers crossed, maybe. But if it doesn't happen again, I think I can speak for pretty much most of the 400-plus people that attended. It was a lot of fun. A good time had by all. and that's kind of what pinball is all about. And I know a lot of people listening to this podcast have never competed before. It doesn't really matter. It's about playing pinball. It's about connecting with people. And if I never do another thing in pinball again, I'm glad I was able to put this together with so many wonderful sponsors, great locations, and terrific players. Fingers crossed, maybe, maybe we'll do it again. This has been your pinball profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com, past episodes, subscriptions, and more. Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile and join our Facebook group. You can email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm Jeff Teolas. Around the world.